Midlifekayak

As is so often the case with challenges like this, it all started over a beer.

Geoff and I had just spent a challenging day out on the water paddling between Slapton Sands and Dartmouth.  We had set out that morning with the benefits of all the elements – wind (Force 6), tide and swell.  It was exciting to say the least as we averaged 8 knots into Dartmouth.

Of course with some Ying you also get some Yang.  We could have called the return trip off and got a taxi back to pick up the cars, but we decided to slog it out against the strengthening winds.  It took us 45 minutes to get to Dartmouth, but 2.5 hours to get back!  We both landed almost vertical in our kayaks as the dumping surf got the better of us.  It was one of those days that you don’t enjoy at the time, but as soon as you land, you are filled with a mix of emotions – relief you survived but thrilled that you learnt so much in doing so.

We felt we deserved the pints of Butcombe and Proper Job later that evening.  After the third, I opened up to Geoff about a little plan I had been nurturing for around a year.  I was fortunate to have a great job but it was all-consuming, very long hours and encroached on most weekends.  I wanted to take some time off, do something completely different and physically challenging.  A paddle round Britain seemed to fit the bill.

The idea of a circumnavigation attempt had been seeded on my first seakayaking course with Simon Osborne from “Seakayaking Cornwall” (based in Falmouth).  Simon has paddled round Britain, Ireland, South Korea, much of Madagascar and recently rowed across the Atlantic.  When I asked Simon about paddling around Britain his response made sense and made it seem a challenge within my reach – “Go for it, it’s just 100, one-day paddles”.

The only problem was that I had only started seakayaking a couple of years previously and did not feel anywhere near confident or competent enough at the time to undertake the journey.  I had kept the idea to myself for several months, nervous that if I shared it with more competent kayakers they might simply laugh.  That night as the beer took hold, I shared the idea with Geoff.  To my surprise he didn’t laugh.

Geoff didn’t say anything though to give me the impression he would like to come with me although his eyes did light up a little.  But a few weeks later he called, having clearly thought it through and having discussed it with his wife, Sue – he was up for it.  That was in July last year and we gave ourselves till October to convince ourselves that we could become competent enough to complete the journey safely.  In September we managed to convince Mike, our 3rd paddler to join the team.  Mike is going to join us for the first 7 weeks which should see us into Scotland.

Since then we have spent as much time as  possible out on the water practicing skills and attending several courses to develop our paddling, rescue techniques, navigation skills, incident management skills, and VHF radio communications.

The training, route planning, securing sponsors and working with the charities we are supporting has been a lot of fun.  Now, with only 7 weeks before we head off, we are all itching to go!